韩国成均馆大学Seok-Jun Hong研究组揭示了丘脑皮层连通性在皮层功能组织出现过程中的作用转变。2024年6月10日，《自然—神经科学》杂志在线发表了这项成果。

据了解，皮层模式化原理是神经科学中一个长期存在的问题，但这一原理如何转化为人脑中的宏观功能特化在很大程度上仍是未知数。

附：英文原文

Title: A shifting role of thalamocortical connectivity in the emergence of cortical functional organization

Author: Park, Shinwon, Haak, Koen V., Oldham, Stuart, Cho, Hanbyul, Byeon, Kyoungseob, Park, Bo-yong, Thomson, Phoebe, Chen, Haitao, Gao, Wei, Xu, Ting, Valk, Sofie, Milham, Michael P., Bernhardt, Boris, Di Martino, Adriana, Hong, Seok-Jun

Issue&Volume: 2024-06-10

Abstract: The cortical patterning principle has been a long-standing question in neuroscience, yet how this translates to macroscale functional specialization in the human brain remains largely unknown. Here we examine age-dependent differences in resting-state thalamocortical connectivity to investigate its role in the emergence of large-scale functional networks during early life, using a primarily cross-sectional but also longitudinal approach. We show that thalamocortical connectivity during infancy reflects an early differentiation of sensorimotor networks and genetically influenced axonal projection. This pattern changes in childhood, when connectivity is established with the salience network, while decoupling externally and internally oriented functional systems. A developmental simulation using generative network models corroborated these findings, demonstrating that thalamic connectivity contributes to developing key features of the mature brain, such as functional segregation and the sensory-association axis, especially across 12–18 years of age. Our study suggests that the thalamus plays an important role in functional specialization during development, with potential impl

DOI: 10.1038/s41593-024-01679-3

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-024-01679-3